Additional Links

Virginia Civil War museums team up for new center

By STEVE SZKOTAK

Associated Press

Dec 1 2013 12:01 am

Christy Coleman, director of the American Civil War Center at Tredegar Iron Works, and Waite Rawls of the Museum of the Confederacy are in front of the ruins of the old Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Va. Steve Helber/ap

RICHMOND, Va. — One museum has among its vast Confederate-centric collection Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s sword and the flag that flew at Robert E. Lee’s headquarters. The other museum strives to tell the story of the American Civil War through the eyes of Northerners and Southerners, freed and enslaved blacks, soldiers and civilians.

Now the Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center are joining forces to build a $30 million museum in Richmond with the goal of creating the top Civil War museum in the nation 150 years after the deadliest conflict fought on U.S. soil from 1861-65 between the Northern states and the secessionist, pro-slavery Southern states.

The marriage of museums will meld the collection of Confederate battle flags, uniforms, weapons and other historic relics with a narrative-based museum that uses bold, interactive exhibits and living history events to relate its 360-degree telling of the war.

What some might view as an unlikely partnership “makes so much sense” to Christy Coleman, president of the American Civil War Center, which opened in 2000 at a site where the new museum will rise.

“They have an incredible collection that is absolutely Confederate strong,” Coleman said. “But there are a lot of artifacts that have not been able to be fully explored or used to relate to the African-American experience or immigrants or the role of Jews.”

She said the Confederacy museum’s collection will complement her museum’s mission of looking at the social and political stories of the Civil War.

In a joint announcement, the museums said the new historic attraction in the former capital of the secessionist Confederacy has yet to be named, but $20 million has been committed to its construction. Ground will be broken in 2014, with an expected opening the following year.

The museum will be along the James River at the Tredegar Ironworks, where much of the South’s cannons were forged during the war. It’s also the home of the Civil War Center.

The museums said bringing together both institutions will “further establish Richmond as the foremost Civil War destination in the United States.”

Richmond continues to draw from its past to bring tourists to the city. Efforts include the creation of a Slave Trail tracing the city’s past as a center in the commerce of enslaved people to a more contemporary narrative offering tours that highlight the Thomas Jefferson-designed Capitol and other central Virginia locations used in Steven Spielberg’s film “Lincoln.”

At the new attraction, Coleman will share the title of CEO with Waite Rawls, president of the Confederacy museum. It dates to 1890 and traces the origins of much of its collections to the men who fought for the South and their descendants, in particular Lee and other Southern military leaders.

The museums have collaborated in the past, Rawls said the merger is “a natural evolution of that relationship.”

The Museum of the Confederacy claims the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of Confederate artifacts: thousands of carefully preserved battle flags, dolls used to smuggle medicine to troops, Jackson’s sword.

Only a fraction of the collection is on display at the museum’s downtown Richmond site, next to the former White House of the Confederacy.

While the Civil War Sesquicentennial has drawn visitors to the museum, overall it has seen a sharp decline in attendance through the years as the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center and related facilities have grown around it, enveloping both buildings.

The James River location for the new attraction offers a more expansive and accessible site. It’s also home to the National Park Service’s Richmond Visitor Center, and already is a popular destination for Civil War buffs.

Get more news delivered to your inbox:

Comments

Notice about comments:

The Post and Courier is pleased to offer readers the enhanced ability to comment on stories. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point.

We do not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click the X that appears in the upper right corner when you hover over a comment. This will send the comment to Facebook for review. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Read our full terms and conditions.